In the first of the books three intertwining essays, Coates, on his first trip to Africa, finds himself in two places at once: in Dakar, a modern city in Senegal, and in a mythic kingdom in his mind. Then he takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he reports on his own books banning, but also explores the larger backlash to the nations recent reckoning with history and the deeply rooted American mythology so visible in that citya capital of the Confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares. Finally, in the books longest section, Coates travels to Palestine, where he sees with devastating clarity how easily we are misled by nationalist narratives, and the tragedy that lies in the clash between the stories we tell and the reality of life on the ground.

Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the countrys most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive myths that shape our worldand our own soulsand embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.